Council considers raises — The South Palm Beach Town Council addressed its own salary structure for the first time in four years at its December meeting.
The council settled on raises that will up the mayor’s $1,000 monthly salary to $2,000 and more than double the pay for most council members — going from $600 monthly to $1,500.
The raises won’t be official until the motion gets a second reading in January and won’t take effect until after the March elections.
The new numbers would not apply to Council member Ray McMillan, who is not up for election until 2028, but will apply to anyone elected March 10 as well as those elected in the future.
The council was provided a comparative list of municipal salaries around Palm Beach County but agreed that South Palm Beach is unique due to its size and the fact it has no commercial property and no main highway, as State Road A1A is owned by the Florida Department of Transportation.
Vice Mayor Monte Berendes said that inflation has increased approximately 3.5% annually over the past four years, totaling 14%, and he added that council members were being “grossly underpaid.”
The agreement would also award the elected officials annual cost-of-living raises pegged to inflation.
Urban appointed — Louis J. Urban was appointed to the town’s planning agency. Mayor Bonnie Fischer said she’s known Urban “for a while” and termed the appointment “excellent.”
— Brian Biggane
Comments